The Breakdown explains what's behind Southern California business and economic news. It describes the effects the headlines have on you: whether you're an investor, a business owner, an employee, homeowner, consumer or just someone who wants to know how to save a buck.

Elizabeth Warren, chairman of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, testifies at a hearing on Capitol Hill, on July 22, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Matthew DeBord|October 17, 2011

Were you wondering why some big banks are reporting big profits, even as markets are driving down their share prices? Blame it on...accounting: "'This is the most vilified accounting rule I've ever seen. It's amazing how universally despised it is,'" said Robert Willens, author of the Willens Report, which analyzes corporate accounting and tax matters." (Reuters)

Somebody loves Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren: "She is provocative and assertive in her critique of corporate power and the well-paid lobbyists who protect it in Washington, and eloquent in her defense of an eroding middle class." (NYT)

What it was like in SoCal when aerospace was booming: "...dozens of airfields dotted the landscape; test-rocket firings flashed and echoed in the foothills; and the local economy became yoked to the boom-and-bust cycles of defense spending. In the process, aerospace helped drive the extraordinary metamorphosis of California from a rural, agrarian state to the sixth-largest economy in the world." (Zócalo)

Bad news for business class: "The...Global Business Travel Assn....estimates that spending on business travel in the U.S. will rise 6.9% this year over 2010, hitting $250.2 billion....But the trade group predicts that a tentative economy next year will slow the trend, leading to growth of 4.3%, or $260.9 billion in spending." (LAT)